So, WHAT'S Katie up to???

Wednesday, August 24, 2011

Where the heck have I been??

I suspect it's rather a common theme among bloggers that they write like crazy when they are on adventures, and then go quiet once they get back home & into their routines.  Since I'm about to embark upon my annual Turkish sojourn, I thought I'd better get back into the swing of things, blog-wise.
May was a time to finally get warm after the abominable winter we had here on Canada's West Coast.  Seems like the whole planet has screwy weather this year.  Arizona seemed like a good place to dry out, so I headed off with husband AndrĂ© to northern Arizona.  After flying to Las Vegas, we headed out along Route 66.......

And then of course to Grand Canyon....
One of my most favourite places.  The grandeur of the canyon is slightly overwhelming.  Rather makes my heart skip a beat.

We decided against covering huge distances in favour of soaking in a couple of special locales; so, much of our Arizona time was spent in the Sedona and Red Rocks area.  The rock formations are so red and dramatic. It was a challenge for me to watch where my feet were going while my eyes kept drifting upwards to the rock faces all around!

My passion for prehistoric art and all things ancient demanded that we visit a couple of rock-art sites in the Sedona Valley.  Indigenous people who inhabited Arizona's Verde Valley for hundreds of years before Europeans arrived (since about 11,500 BC) produced both pictographs (painting on the rock) and petroglyphs (etching into the rock) which are wonderfully preserved at several sites.
 Pictographs predominate in a cliff dwelling at Palatki, just outside Sedona.

Petroglyphs at the V-V (Vee Bar Vee) Ranch south of Sedona were conscientiously preserved by the Ranch owners over the years, and are now entrusted to the US Forest Service.

I took innumerable photos of these amazing designs, in different light situations, at slightly different times, from a zillion different angles.  I now have a great collection of inspirational snippets for tile and panel design.

And of course I had to photograph wildflowers and animals wherever I found them (my family says I'm famous for this.......).
So, we managed to get ourselves nicely warmed up, and I got re-inspired. Our trip was capped off with an evening of ogling the sights in Vegas.  Quite a contrast from the natural desert -- certainly a different kind of 'wow'!